MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — A few hundred Republican politicians, donors and supporters gathered at Bucks Run Golf Club Wednesday, May 28, in Isabella County to hear what a Wisconsin congressman and former vice presidential candidate had to say.

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he crossed Lake Michigan from his home in Janesville, Wisconsin, to thank Michigan's 4th congressional district for, time and time again for more than two decades, sending U.S. Rep. Dave Camp back to serve in Congress.

Camp, who received a standing ovation as he took the podium, introduced Ryan as a friend, and credited him as the author of the Republican Party's platform and plans to address the nation's "looming fiscal crisis."

Backed by a "Dave Camp for Congress" banner from a previous election year, Ryan praised the Midland lawmaker for always representing his district and the will of his constituents, and for serving as an example of what a good political leader should be.

"I just wanted to come over from Janesville, Wisconsin, this morning to thank you for sending us Dave Camp," he said.

Camp, who has represented the district since 1991, recently announced that he would not run for re-election in 2014. He serves in a leadership position often acknowledged as one of the most powerful in the U.S. House of Representatives, as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Ryan talked about spending many hours sitting beside Camp on that committee and on the nonpartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission that met in 2010 in an attempt to identify policies to achieve long-term fiscal stability for the federal government.

"Sometimes we would spend more time with each other than we would with our families," Ryan said.

He said that, though that commission's recommendations were never directly adopted by Congress, ideas that came out of those discussions have been used for budget proposals ever since.

"We didn't think we should take more money from hard-working taxpayers to go to a government that would go on unreformed," Ryan said.

The GOP should take note of the kind of work done by leaders like Dave Camp, he said, in deciding what the future of the party needs to be.

"It's not enough for us to just be an effective opposition party," Ryan said. "We have to do that. But we also have to be a very effective proposition party. We have to be the alternative party. And that is why I'm so grateful and so thankful for this man that you sent us here. Because Dave is one of the primary architects of what we're for, of who we are."

Ryan stood by his federal budget proposal, which includes Medicaid cuts.

"These are programs that are going bankrupt," Ryan said. "They're very important programs that people have paid taxes to support for many years with the expectation that they're going to be there when they retire. The problem with Obamacare is it doubled down in the wrong direction and it made things even worse."

Freedom to choose one's own doctor and "patient-centered" healthcare should be at the center of "real healthcare reform" to address some of the problems with the current system, he said.

Thinking back to the mid 1990s, Ryan said he remembers Camp from his time working for the late Jack Kemp, as a "young and energetic" member of the Ways and Means Committee. Camp taught him the important lesson that persistence and devotion is how meaningful change can be accomplished.

Ryan, who sits on the committee and chairs the House Budget Committee, has widely been considered as the front-runner to succeed Camp as Ways and Means chairman. Though some in the political community believe Ryan will need to decide between taking that position or a possible presidential campaign in 2016.

The congressman said Wednesday that he did not plan to break any news on that question.

"I'm focused on 2014 right now," Ryan said. "There are still things we have to get done in Congress."

Camp has also not yet made any announcements about his plans for after his congressional term expires at the end of the year. He said he plans to continue working hard for the district for the next seven months and "run through the tape."

"I just want to thank all of you very much for the honor of representing you for the past 12 terms," he said.

Two of the three Republican candidates campaigning for Camp's soon-to-be-vacated seat were in attendance Tuesday, Saginaw County businessman Paul Mitchell and State Sen. John Moolenaar.